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The Dellys area presents a natural harbour in the form of a small bay sheltered on the west and northwest by the peninsula of Sidi Abdelkader (largely occupied by the town cemetery, along with a small lighthouse). This peninsula is the seaward extension of the mountain of Assouaf, looming over the town. Around this harbour grew the Casbah of Dellys. During the colonial period the town grew southwards, as the port was expanded; a technical school, the Ecole des arts et métiers, was also built to the north, near the cemetery. Expansion further up the mountain was prevented by the preservation of the Bou-Arbi forest; instead, the town's growth after independence in 1962 was mainly concentrated in two "wings" on each side of it.

To the south, former agricultural areas on the mountain slopes were built up with apartment buildings to form the new suburb Nouvelle-Ville, still surrounded by farmland on both sides. To the west, the relatively level Ladjenna (or "Les Jardins") area, with rocky coasts, consisted mainly of family gardens and small farms until the mid-twentieth century, but is now largely built up. It includes the tiny fishing port of El-Kouss; Cape Bengut, the northernmost land in the region, marked by a larger lighthouse; and the rock promontory of Sid El-Medjni. Further west, the village of Takdempt, at the mouth of the Sebaou river, remains marginally separated from Dellys proper.

The daira has a total of 678 hectares of forest, most of it accounted for by Bou-Arbi above the old town (74 hectares, Aleppo pine), Assouaf above the Ladjennna suburb (50 hectares, thuya and degraded maquis), Achtoub (290 hectares, brush), and an area around Takdempt (250 hectares, brush).[5]

The Dellys area has been inhabited since prehistoric times; archeological finds in the area include Iberomaurusian remains, a Neolithic polished axe, and (at Takdempt) some dolmens and covered alleys[7]. It first entered written history as the Phoeniciancolony of Rusucurru or Rusuccuru.[8], known to the Greeks as Rhousoukkórrou (Greek: ῾Ρουσουκκόρρου).[9]

The town's regional importance in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis was sufficient that inscriptions in the nearest towns, Iomnium to the east (modern Tigzirt) and Cissi to the west (modern Djinet), were dedicated to Rusucurru's genius loci[10]. With the advent of Christianity, it became a suffragan bishopric, variously known as Rusucurium,[9]Rusucurrum, and Rhusuncorae; it was the birthplace of the Christian martyr Marciana. It survived Firmus' revolt in 373-375, but disappears from written sources during later centuries.

Under the name of Tedelles, the town reappears in the 12th century as the final refuge of the last Banu Sumadih emir of Almeria in Spain, Mu'izz ud-Dawla ibn Sumadih, who was granted land there by the Hammadid dynasty after fleeing the advance of the Almoravids. After a period of prosperity, it was hard hit by the wars of the 14th century between the Hafsid, Merinid, and Zayyanid kingdoms, changing hands no less than 12 times between 1285 and 1373. After 1438 the town came under the rule of the Thaaliba family of Algiers.

In 1830, France occupied Algiers; it occupied Dellys over a decade later, in 1844. A European quarter was built immediately south of the Casbah. Algeria became independent in 1962; during the following decades, the town grew substantially.

As elsewhere in Algeria, football (soccer) is popular; Dellys-born footballers include Abderrahman Ibrir, former manager of the Algerian national team, and Rachid Nadji, a striker for MC Oran. The local team is the Union sportive de Dellys (USD). The town is equipped with a stadium capable of holding up to 7,000 people.[19]